I am going to hunt this fall at a friend's farm in Mississippi.

I plan to use my 375 H&H as it is my standard hunting rifle and I like shooting it.

What bullet should I use? Anything from a 375 H&H should kill a whitetail - but I want to know if a solid would be ideal as there would be less meat damage.

A Hornady 220gr. or Speer 235gr. is MORE than adequate.

Some states prohibit non-expanding bullets on game; MS might be one of them.

George

I would stick to a bullet designed for the velocity you are shooting. The light weight 220s are for low velocity and would blow up at full velocity, which on a whitetail isn't really a bad thing. If you are worried about meat damage shoot one of the heavies or shoot them through the lungs or head.

What ever you are comfortable with now, is more than enough. The 375 H&H is known for it's explosive terminal ballistics. I would take advantage of the high shoulder shot and make use of the knock down force of the 375.

Beretta,

I shot tiny Central Texas whitetail with the 300 grain Nosler Partition back in the '80s while prepping for my first safari. I think you'll be surprised (as I was) how little mess that slug (launched at a sedate 2500 fps) actually makes. As my buddy observed when he examined my buck after I'd hung it back in camp, "I tear 'em up worse than this with a .270". The average whitetail just doesn't offer enough resistance to promote expansion from a tougher bullet, so entry and exit wounds look very similar.

My money is on the 300 NP, and as George points out the use of solids may not be legal. Have fun!

Mark

Try the Hornady 225 SP--it is a tough one-- made for the H&H. Drop it to about 2700, it will still shoot to 250 300, kick less and I get them to penetrate 2 med size hogs. Accuracy is superb.

I use 300 grain TSX. I just feel why bother
with another load and rezeroing scope. I have used it on many small plains game animals and it has performed perfectly with little meat damage. I try to do lung or heart shots.

quote:

Originally posted by Wallyfish:
Try the Hornady 225 SP--it is a tough one-- made for the H&H. Drop it to about 2700, it will still shoot to 250 300, kick less and I get them to penetrate 2 med size hogs. Accuracy is superb.

I'm w/ Wally---I love that Hornady 225SP pushed around 2700. I use H4895 & get excellent 1" or less groups @ 100 & it hits like a hammer on deer

If your ranges are modest, I've had great luck with the 220 gr Hornady flat points about @ 2200 fps, with a load of 5744. Very accurate, no recoil, hits like a hammer. Bob

The 300gr. Nosler Partition I put into a 120# Texas Whitetail gave me one very, very dead deer.

I can also say the Nosler did not expand...not that it really mattered. That deer never ran and went down so fast into some tall weeds that I thought I'd missed!

If you want to shoot light bullets just make sure you back off the velocity a little. It will result in less meat damage. Don't ask how I know this.
The mid weight 250-270's may be better because of the better BC at longer ranges.
The 375 will definitely kill them.

I've killed a several Texas whitetail with Nosler 260 Accubonds. Less damage than I often saw with smaller caliber higher velocity.

300 grain barnes tsx in federal it will be - my standard for everything in africa will be at work in miss

thanks for all the info and advice

My loading for my .375 is either a 235 grain Barnes "X" or a 250 grain Barnes "X". A Barnes TSX should perform quite well.

Out of my rifle I use 66.0 grains of IMR3031 for the 235's and 69.0 grains of 4064 with the 250's.

Deer, Hog, Elk it works on any of them.

I use the same bullet on deer as on African plains game---a 300 gr. Sierra. The only time I used a 235 gr. bullet was on leopard. Expansion was a lot more important than meat loss.

quote:

What bullet should I use? Anything from a 375 H&H should kill a whitetail - but I want to know if a solid would be ideal as there would be less meat damage.

Here in WY I used the Speer 270 gr BTSP over 70 gr of IMR 4064 to take antelope. It just plows a big ol' hole through them.

Another load my .375 liked was the Sierra 250 gr BTSP over a healthy dose of RL-15.

Ruger 375 shooting factory Hornady 270's has been my standard load up here for years. Wolf, Deer, elk, black bear have all fallen with no more damage than other hunting loads. Use what shoots well and never look back!

quote:

Originally posted by JCS271:
Ruger 375 shooting factory Hornady 270's has been my standard load up here for years. Wolf, Deer, elk, black bear have all fallen with no more damage than other hunting loads. Use what shoots well and never look back!

I've used that load on a couple deer and it worked well. The factory bullet expands like crazy though...didn't give me confidence for using it on anything bigger than deer. I prefer handloads with TTSXs for elk, moose, bear etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
I am going to hunt this fall at a friend's farm in Mississippi.

I plan to use my 375 H&H as it is my standard hunting rifle and I like shooting it.

What bullet should I use? Anything from a 375 H&H should kill a whitetail - but I want to know if a solid would be ideal as there would be less meat damage.

Throughout the 90s and into the early part of this century, I managed kill permits in a highly productive area in the east. I'd generally run 20-30 deer on the permits in addition to a half dozen on a general license. During those years, I took deer with most everything from selfbows through centerfire rifles. I had built a 375H&H Mauser for use on hunting big bears. Prior to my bear hunt, I decided to get a bunch of trigger time vetting the rifle on the deer culls. That rifle went on to produce a long string of clean kills for many years until it was finally retired. I never experienced another chambering with such a track record of DRTs while having routine minimal meat damage. The other chamberings with low meat damage could not muster the same level of DRTs, while the chamberings that were of equal at DRTs would generally have greater damage.

Best advice I could give based on my experience:

Do not download or upload, shoot a standard velocity 270-300 grain loading same as you'd use on large game. The only thing obnoxious about such rifle used for deer is that it will probably be on the heavy side with a bunch more recoil to deal with vs using a standard deer rifle. I never used solids, so I cannot advise on them.

Best

Pleasant, very effective deer and 300-pound black bear load for me in the .375 H&H
was the 250-grain Sierra at about 2700 fps MV in a 24" barrel.
Of course any standard .375 H&H factory load will work wonders on deer.
Whatever you and your rifle like best.
Solids are illegal for deer in KY and AK, IIRC.

I took a whitetail and a Scimitar-horned Oryx with this load: Rem case, Fed215MagMatch primer, 68gr H335 and a NorthFork 250grSS OAL 3.60" Worked fantastic! Velocity is around 2600@muzzle. Very easy load to shoot.

I think there is plenty of room for additional velocity with this powder. I was getting less belt expansion than factory loads and extraction was awesome.

Andy

Remmy factory green box 270s should work just fine.

Use the same ammunition/bullets you plan on using for your African animals. Not worth changing sight settings, etc. I've killed quite a few whitetails with 400 grain bullets out of a .416. It's good practice; hardly any meat damage; if you are worried about that, place your shots accordingly -- again, good practice.

quote:

Do not download or upload, shoot a standard velocity 270-300 grain loading same as you'd use on large game. The only thing obnoxious about such rifle used for deer is that it will probably be on the heavy side with a bunch more recoil to deal with vs using a standard deer rifle. I never used solids, so I cannot advise on them.

That's my answer as well. 270 TSX through the lungs is plenty. All have been DRT with that except one. And that one left a blood trail Stevie Wonder could follow.

LWD

Okay, here is my reply to all the DRT folks.

I shot a smallish 8 point white tail buck about 7 or 8 years ago at about 40 yards, with my .375 and a 250 grain Barnes "X" Flat Base. At the shot, pieces of lung and muscle tissue sprayed the cedar tree behind the buck.

At the hit, that sucker clamped his tail to his ass and lit out. He ran about 60 yards and went off a creek bank, fell about 20 maybe 25 feet anmd piled up with his nose dripping blood ingto the water in the creek.

I went down in the hole after him, pulled him away from the water to a level spot and went to fie;ld dressing him. When I cut into the chest cavity, the whole top third of the heart was GONE. The heart wass basically loose in the chest cavity, arteries and all were gone, yet that buck still covered 60+ yards with his heart not connected to anything.

Two weeks earlier I had shot a buck off hand at about 80 yards with that same loading, thru the shoulders and it fell dead in mid stride, never twitched.

You do this stuff often enough and under enough different circumstances and things will go wobbly from time to time.